A YEAR OF PRAYER
1 I love the Lord, because He has heard My voice and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as
I live. —Psalm 116:1 - 2
THE TRUE PRAYER OF REPENTANCE
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight— that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God… —Psalm 51:1 - 10a
The true prayer of repentance leans into the Character of God.
The true prayer of repentance acknowledges the sin within.
The true prayer of repentance acknowledges our sin is against God.
1. The true prayer of repentance acknowledges the condition of our heart.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. —Psalm 51:5
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? —Jeremiah 17:9
For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. —1 John 2:16
20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders
22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man. —Mark 7:20 - 2314 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. —James 1:14 - 1514 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. —Romans 7:14 - 25Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. —Matthew 5:8
2. The true prayer of repentance is asking for a miracle in our “whole man” – our heart.
Create in me a clean heart, O God… —Psalm 51:10a
In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. —Genesis 1:1I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. —Ezekiel 33:26
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. —James 4:8
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. —Proverbs 4:23
3. The true prayer of repentance is to long for a clean heart.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. —Psalm 51:10
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. —Hebrews 10:22
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new. —1 Corinthians 5:17